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China and Canada: Relationships at rock bottom - conflicts over the politicization of the judiciary

2021-08-12T10:56:38.620Z


Relations between Canada and China are in free fall. Both accuse each other of politicizing judicial cases. Two Canadians have now been sentenced in northern China.


Relations between Canada and China are in free fall.

Both accuse each other of politicizing judicial cases.

Two Canadians have now been sentenced in northern China.

Beijing / Munich - Three Canadians are caught in the geopolitical maelstrom of the possible extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from Vancouver to the USA.

You are in custody in China.

Harsh sentences were pronounced against two of them this week.

Relations between Canada and China have thus reached a temporary low - while Meng's extradition process is heading towards its decision.

On Wednesday, a court in Dandong on the border with North Korea sentenced Michael Spavor, a businessman who has been in custody since 2018, to eleven years in prison for espionage.

Just one day earlier, the Shenyang Court of Appeal had upheld a January 2019 death sentence for drug trafficking against Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg.

The timing of the two judgments should not be a coincidence.

Because currently the process of extraditing the Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is under house arrest in Canada, is entering the decisive phase in the USA.

Spavor's arrest was also temporally related to the Meng case: he, like the Canadian ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig, was arrested in December 2018 shortly after the Huawei manager was arrested in Vancouver.

Both were charged with espionage in June 2020;

Kovrig is still waiting for his verdict.

Schellenberg was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 2018.

This sentence was found to be too low - noticeably shortly after Meng's arrest - and was commuted to a death sentence.

China and Canada: Relations have been strained for years

Meng was arrested at the end of 2018 due to an extradition request shortly before her flight from Vancouver to Beijing. Since then, bilateral relations have been on a decline. Beijing regards this US extradition request as well as the ongoing extradition proceedings in Vancouver as politically motivated. Canada is acting under pressure from the USA, so the Beijing reading. Canada, on the other hand, accuses Beijing of political motivation and of attempting to influence the Meng trial in the case of the “two Michaels”.

China even issued retaliatory measures, including import restrictions on canola oil and other Canadian products. According to the dpa, at least three Canadian drug smugglers were sentenced to death in the People's Republic even before the current verdict against Schellenberg. Death sentences against drug traffickers are not uncommon across Asia. What is striking about Schellenberg is the tightening of the original prison sentence

The ratio is now heading for a new low. The new judgments were immediately followed by a diplomatic exchange of blows. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply criticized the court decision: "The verdict against Mr. Spavor was preceded by more than two and a half years of arbitrary detention, a lack of transparency in the judicial process and a process that did not even meet the minimum standards required by international law." back today, Thursday: "Canada presents itself on the one hand as a country that upholds the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary." But at the same time it interferes in the Chinese judiciary. Canada's “real intent is to politicize legal issues,” the ministry said, warning: “Foreign citizenship is no protection.“Everyone is equal before the law.

Canada: Case against Huawei manager approaching decision

China denies any connection between the trials against the Canadians and the arrest of Huawei manager Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.

But this hardly seems credible, at least for the termination of the Chinese proceedings.

Meanwhile, details of Meng's extradition process are rarely the focus of international reporting. The case is quite interesting. The US accuses the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei of lied to the British bank HSBC in 2013 about the activities of a Huawei subsidiary called Skycom in Iran - which put the bank in danger of violating US sanctions against Tehran. Meng denies the allegations. The US is also imposing sanctions on foreign companies doing business with Iran - a policy that many states, including the EU and China, reject. This aspect also gave the case a geopolitical component from the start.

Extradition judge Heather Holmes recently rejected new HSBC documents intended to exonerate Meng as being irrelevant to her case. They only concern a possible major lawsuit in the United States, said Holmes. According to an analysis from the

South China Morning Post

, Meng Wanzhou would have to avoid extradition

prove that she has been the victim of an abuse of procedure.

That is where their Canadian lawyers are starting these days.

They argue that the entire case is based on political motives of former US President Donald Trump, that the US misled the court by providing unreliable evidence, that the extradition request violated international law - and that the Canadian border police had arrested Meng at the airport Vancouver violated its own charter.

The list reads highly political.

China: Accusations against Canadian Korea experts Spavor are not very specific

Conversely, it is still unclear what exactly the condemned Michael Spavor is being accused of.

He is a North Korea expert and ran the company Paektu Cultural Exchange in Dandong, which specializes in organizing cultural exchanges, tourism and investments with North Korea. Spavor met North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un several times - allegedly even with a drink on his yacht - and, for example, organized visits by former US basketball player Dennis Rodman to the dictator in Pyongyang.

Much of the evidence presented in Spavor's trial related to photos taken in China "around airports or where no photo should be taken," Ambassador Barton said, according to the

South China Morning Post

. Some of them would have depicted military aircraft. According to the Chinese state newspaper

Global Times

, Spavor is said to have been an important source of information for the third Canadian who was arrested, Michael Kovrig. The ex-diplomat Kovrig is accused of having used an ordinary passport with a business visa to enter the People's Republic since 2017, “in order to steal sensitive information and information through contacts in China”.

The lack of transparency of the proceedings in China makes it practically impossible to fathom the validity of the allegations.

Since 2017, Kovrig had worked as a Northeast Asia expert for the International Crisis Group think tank, which repeatedly calls for his release: “Nothing Michael did harmed China.

On the contrary, the work of the Crisis Group aims to defuse any tension between China and neighboring countries. "

Germany, the EU and the USA also criticize harsh judgments

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has meanwhile assured Canada of support. "The judgments against two Canadian citizens are another heavy blow against the self-imposed goal of the Chinese leadership to strengthen the rule of law," criticized Maas. "The trial of Michael Spavor was held behind closed doors and his consular rights were restricted in a manner contrary to international law." Canada's Ambassador Dominic Barton was allowed to deliver the verdict - but for the first time during the entire trial. He called the long prison term "very disappointing".

A spokeswoman for the EU Commission emphasized that the EU had repeatedly urged China to comply with human rights standards such as the possibility of a public hearing in the process.

The US government also called for the unconditional and immediate release of Spavor and Kovrig.

"The practice of arbitrarily detaining people to put pressure on foreign governments is completely unacceptable," said Foreign Minister Antony Blinken in a statement.

People should never be used as bargaining chips.

China and Canada: what's next?

The ongoing hearing will continue until August 20.

Only then can Judge Holmes decide whether to recommend Meng's release or extradition to a court in New York.

The final decision will be made by Canada's Justice Minister David Lametti.

His department's lawyers are ironically representing the United States in the trial.

Will the decision about Meng be a political one in the end?

And could the harsh judgments be Beijing's leverage for this?

Nobody speaks about it in public.

There are still at least the last formal ways out for those affected.

Spavor has the right to appeal against today's judgment.

And the death penalty for Schellenberg still has to be upheld by China's Supreme Court in the last instance, as has been the rule for several years.

How good these chances are should have a lot to do with the decision about Meng.

Canada will continue to demand the immediate release of Spavor and Kovrig, Ambassador Barton said.

Schellenberg will seek a pardon.

The matter is gradually coming to a head.

(ck)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-08-12

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